12 research outputs found
South-South technology transfer of low-carbon innovation: large Chinese hydropower dams in Cambodia
Large dams have been controversially debated for decades due to their largeāscale and often irreversible social and environmental impacts. In the pursuit of lowācarbon energy and climate change mitigation, hydropower is experiencing a new renaissance. At the forefront of this renaissance are Chinese actors as the world's largest hydropower damābuilders. This paper aims to discuss the role of SouthāSouth technology transfer of lowācarbon energy innovation and its opportunities and barriers by using a case study of the first large Chineseāfunded and Chineseābuilt dam in Cambodia. Using the Kamchay Dam as an example, the paper finds that technology transfer can only be fully successful when host governments and organizations have the capacity to absorb new technologies. The paper also finds that technology transfer in the dam sector needs to go beyond hardware and focus more on the transfer of expertise, skills and knowledge to enable longāterm sustainable development
Cultural specificity versus institutional universalism: a critique of the National Integrity System (NIS) methodology
This article provides an assessment and critique of the National Integrity System approach and methodology, informed by the experience of conducting an NIS review in Cambodia. It explores four key issues that potentially undermine the relevance and value of NIS reports for developing democracies: the narrowly conceived institutional approach underpinning the NIS methodology; the insufficient appreciation of cultural distinctiveness; a failure properly to conceptualise and articulate the very notion of āintegrityā; and an over emphasis on compliance-based approaches to combating corruption at the expense of the positive promotion of integrity. The article seeks to offer some pointers to how the NIS approach could be adapted to broaden its conceptualisation of institutions and integrity, and thereby provide reports that are more theoretically informed as well as being more constructive and actionable